Baseball Coaching Tips: How To Implement Strength & Conditioning Into Practice For All Ages

One task baseball coaches struggle with is how to properly strengthen and condition their players. Typically practices start with a light jog and stretch and then do not increase strength or conditioning sans a little running at the end.

While certainly skill development needs to be priority number 1, including strength and conditioning exercises in your coaching plans will help your players perform better, have more fun and get injured less.

This is actually very simple to do.

Baseball Coaching Tips for practice...

1. Begin with a Dynamic Warm-Up

Forget the laps and team circle stretch. That does very little to properly warm-up the body in a manner that's suited for the dynamic nature of baseball and frankly, is a waste of time.

Dynamic Warm-Up is a fun, effective way to quickly increase the body's core temperature and within each individual joint. This is critical for optimal performance and injury prevention. Failing to do this can cause injuries that otherwise can be prevented. Proper baseball coaching should start with this rule.

2. Perform sprinting first - not last

Perform any running work early in practice. This is when players are freshest and can actually get faster. Sprinting at the end of practice when the players are fatigued will develop poor habits that will be very difficult to overcome. Plus practice is always more fun once sprinting is over!

3. Players should rarely stand still

Do your best to have a practice plan and stick to it. This will take some adjustment by the coaches and players, but will result in up to 40% more work being done. Practice will fly by, everyone will have more fun and players will be better skill wise and condition wise.

In addition, by always moving around players will not get tight and stiff, therefore creating a much safer environment for your players.

4. Finish with strength & conditioning work

The end of practice is a great time to add some strength and conditioning work. Pull out all the stops in your baseball coaching arsenal and perform medicine ball partner throws, along with pushups, lunges, squats and static core holds.

10-15 minutes is all you need to make a significant difference in how your players perform and feel.

As you can see these are simple, yet very effective methods to help your baseball coaching. Of course the key is implementation. My suggestion is to slowly introduce each aspect I listed and not try to do everything at once. Too much too soon only confuses everybody.

As the game of baseball displays greater speed, power and strength each passing year, it's imperative that you keep pace and help put your players in a position to succeed. This, as you know, is Baseball Coaching 101. The important thing is to always remember why you are there and just how much you mean to your players. I have great respect for the time you take out and your commitment to carrying on the great tradition of our national pastime.

Be sure to check out Jon Doyle's baseball coaching website and sign up for his FREE Baseball Training Newsletter.